The Lie Of Liberation / Cheering Iraqis are just a diversion, folks. BushCo's real goal is only just beginning

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Published
4:00 am PDT, Friday, April 11, 2003

Yay! The gorilla has crushed the mouse. The bazooka has blown apart the BB gun. The dinosaur has stomped the fly. Yay!

Rejoice in the streets! The bright shiny righteous angry Christian god has obliterated the angry sullen foreign god. Or something.

Except, of course, it hasn't, not by a long shot. But, hey, we've more or less taken Baghdad, right? Headlines are screaming, it looks like victory, it smells like victory ... it must be victory! We've won! Sort of! But not quite! Savor it like bloodied candy, we will!

Except that it was never a question. There was never a shred of doubt the U.S. would "win" Shrub's vicious little war. The world's richest superpower, the most deadly and potent high-tech military on the planet, all aimed at a pip-squeak, ragtag nation whose bedraggled, barely trained military was but a fraction of what it was 10 years ago, when we wiped most of them out in a week. Oh yeah, we bad.

It was never a contest. It was only a matter of time. It is, basically, a fierce and bloody U.S. steamrolling that hit a few unexpected speed bumps. And we've still got a long, difficult way to go.

But we have taken Baghdad and the regime has fallen, the headlines scream, as if this is something unexpected or miraculous or blessed, and not, as most astute observers have been saying all along, a bittersweet inevitability, a desperately volatile power prize for the Shrub regime to wield over neighboring Arab nations like a bloody hammer.

And it's a nation we will be involved in for years, if not decades, to come. Think all our troops are coming home anytime soon? Think again. Wonder if all our new and hate-filled enemies in surrounding countries will now roll over and beg for our mercy? Think again.

Remember, Iraq's overthrow is only Phase 1 of the premeditated, long-standing Rummy/Cheney/Wolfie plan to aggressively bludgeon the Middle East into compliance with U.S. corporate and political interests. Did you miss that one? About the Project for the New American Century? Yep, been mapped out for years.

And their plan has nothing whatsoever to do with giving a damn for repressed people or raining blissful democracy upon starving nations. That is a side effect, a bonus, a great and touching piece of cover-up PR. Just as it is right now. Thousands of dead Iraqis? Hell, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Just wait until we "liberate" Syria.

Ah, but still the celebratory chants come. We have freed Iraq from its brutal dictator, one who was zero threat to our monster superpower country! And we did so by mutilating and killing countless thousands of Iraqi people, often ruthlessly, soldiers and citizens, women and children, so many bodies the local hospitals stopped counting, thousands more than were ever killed in 9/11, though there remains absolutely no connection between this war and 9/11, none whatsoever! Yay! Don't you feel proud?

And what, exactly, have we the American people won? What are the spoils of our victory? Let's look: A gutted U.S. economy, a record budget deficit, decimated civil liberties (the GOP now wants to make the draconian USA Patriot Act permanent), one of the most secretive and ruthless and warmongering administrations in 50 years and the outright derision and bitter resentment of much of the civilized world, of nearly every one of our former allies.

Oh, and a bonus: the horrific, irrevocable reputation that we are now a power-mad rogue superpower that will attack anyone, for any reason, on the hollowest of bogus pretenses. Righteous!

Ah, but what are Bush's spoils? Let's look: His copious corporate pals get to rush in and install a nice puppet government to help the baffled Iraqis rebuild their hovels and "manage" their precious oil. There, there, now, Iraq, your brutal dictator is gone. Welcome to rampant capitalism. See if you can tell the difference.

But, more than that, Bush's regime gets a vital, strategic piece of the oil-rich power puzzle with which to strong-arm all Mideast comers. Our iron foot is now in the door. This was the point all along.

Look. We haven't won a single thing. We haven't defeated a deadly or truly threatening enemy. We have not lovingly promoted the causes of peace and freedom and hot vente mocha-caramel lattes for every starving child. Liberating an oppressed people is a wonderful thing indeed. The images of cheering Baghdadis are truly amazing. For about a week. But that result was never the point.

And we have not, in the slightest bit, reduced the threat of terrorism to our nation. In fact, we have done the exact opposite. We have, most likely, amplified that threat a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Look at those cluster bombs fall, those women decapitated. See the children scream, those Arab nations seethe and mourn, the world stare at us, appalled and horrified and angry. Do you feel safer now? Boy, I sure do. I feel like, like ... another tax cut for the wealthy! Yep, that oughta do it.

Quick show of hands: Who remembers the alleged reason we had to stomp Saddam in the first place? Wasn't it nukes? Chemical warfare? WMDs? Skanky mustache? Because, of course, we have found exactly nada. If he had any, and he was as vile as insane as we all seem to think, don't you think he would've used them by now? Go figure.

Wait, was it because he's a brutal thug? Is that why we stomped him? Nope, that was never the reason. Hell, if that's our criteria for slamming tiny nations completely unprovoked, if all it takes is a wicked despot/former ally and an oppressed people who don't even realize how much they're in need of a nice bloody all-American ass-kicking, well, we're gonna be busy. It's a long list.

Sure enough, Baghdad fell like an old Tinker-Toy fort. The pointless battle has indeed been "won," as everyone knew it would be. But the real war -- ideological, religious, geopolitical, petrochemical -- is only just beginning. And, as the Shrubster says, it won't be over until the last terrorist is killed.